You Sound Like Mommy: Bilingual and Monolingual Infants Learn Words Best from Speakers Typical of Their Language Environments

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  • Author(s): Fennell, Christopher; Byers-Heinlein, Krista
  • Language:
    English
  • Source:
    International Journal of Behavioral Development. Jul 2014 38(4):309-316.
  • Publication Date:
    2014
  • Document Type:
    Journal Articles
    Reports - Research
  • Additional Information
    • Availability:
      SAGE Publications. 2455 Teller Road, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320. Tel: 800-818-7243; Tel: 805-499-9774; Fax: 800-583-2665; e-mail: [email protected]; Web site: http://sagepub.com
    • Peer Reviewed:
      Y
    • Source:
      8
    • Subject Terms:
      Infants; Monolingualism; Bilingualism; Phonology; French; English; Comparative Analysis; Language Acquisition; Pronunciation; Generalization; Auditory Stimuli; Foreign Countries; Visual Stimuli; Questionnaires; Parents; Habituation; Gender Differences; Attention
    • Subject Terms:
      Canada (Ottawa)
    • Accession Number:
      10.1177/0165025414530631
    • ISSN:
      0165-0254
    • Abstract:
      Previous research indicates that monolingual infants have difficulty learning minimal pairs (i.e., words differing by one phoneme) produced by a speaker uncharacteristic of their language environment and that bilinguals might share this difficulty. To clearly reveal infants' underlying phonological representations, we minimized task demands by embedding target words in naming phrases, using a fully crossed, between-subjects experimental design. We tested 17-month-old French-English bilinguals' (N = 30) and English monolinguals' (N = 31) learning of a minimal pair (/k?m/ - /g?m/) produced by an adult bilingual or monolingual. Infants learned the minimal pair only when the speaker matched their language environment. This vulnerability to subtle changes in word pronunciation reveals that neither monolingual nor bilingual 17-month-olds possess fully generalizable phonological representations.
    • Abstract:
      As Provided
    • Number of References:
      43
    • Publication Date:
      2014
    • Accession Number:
      EJ1028112